Category: Liaison Prosecutor

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Mr Philip Schotland starts as new Swiss Liaison Prosecutor at Eurojust

Source: Eurojust

Upon taking up his new role, Mr Schotland stated: ‘It’s a great honour to be appointed Liaison Prosecutor and thus be able to contribute the experience I have already built up in the Swiss bureau at Eurojust. This also shows the importance my national authorities attach to maintaining continuity in combating cross-border crime.’

The new Liaison Prosecutor joined the Swiss Federal Office of Justice in June 2022, starting as deputy at Eurojust a month later that same year. Previously, he worked as a public prosecutor in the canton of Basel-City and as an assistant as of 2015. In this capacity, he specialised in serious crimes and investigations into organised crime groups, drawing on his experience in cross-border judicial cooperation.

Mr Schotland graduated as a Master of Law from Basel University in 2012 and did his bar exam in 2014. The Netherlands is familiar territory to the new Liaison Prosecutor, as he completed an internship at the Swiss embassy in The Hague after his graduation in 2012. Following this experience, Mr Schotland was a trainee at a private law company and at the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Basel, before becoming an assistant there.

The new Liaison Prosecutor speaks German, French and English. He is also attached to the office of the Swiss Armed Forces Attorney General, in the rank of major.

Switzerland is one of the twelve countries* outside the European Union that have a Liaison Prosecutor at Eurojust, based on a Cooperation Agreement. Liaison Prosecutors represent their national judicial authorities and can open requests for cross-border cooperation with EU Member States and vice versa.

*The following other third countries have Liaison Prosecutors at Eurojust: Albania, Georgia, Iceland, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Ukraine, United Kingdom and the United States

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First Liaison Prosecutor for Iceland starts at Eurojust

Source: Eurojust

Marking the start of her mandate of three and a half years at Eurojust, Ms Kolbrún Benediktsdóttir stated: ‘I´m honoured and excited to join Eurojust as the first Liaison Prosecutor from Iceland. It is a very important step for Iceland and I´m sure that it will prove to be essential when it comes to prosecuting cross-border and organised crimes.’

From 2016 until her seconding to Eurojust, Ms Benediktsdóttir worked as Deputy District Prosecutor. In this capacity, she was in charge of the department dealing with police corruption, and a member of Nordic and European cooperation in the same field. Furthermore, she was the administrator for the department for violent crimes, sexual offences, and drug and human trafficking. Between 2006 and 2015, she served as prosecutor in the office of the Director of Public Prosecution.

From 2006 until today, Ms Benediktsdóttir was also a teacher at the Faculty of Law of the University of Iceland. From 2013 onwards, she served as substitute judge in the Labour Court of Iceland, and in 2022 became a member of the Minister of Justice’s Permanent Committee on Procedural Law. She graduated in law from the University of Law in 2005 and undertook her bar exam for the Iceland District Courts in 2008.

*The following other third countries have Liaison Prosecutors at Eurojust: Albania, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States.